We hear Laura Metcalf say [ yæis ], then [ yɛis ]. She starts out with a pronunciation which has the phonetic vowel [ æ ], then has a pronunciation with the phonetic vowel [ ɛ ]. This is what she does with her range of pronunciations for the Milluk word / ʔælks / ‘afraid’.

Jacobs’ exact transcription of Annie Miner Peterson’s pronunciation of this word is | yɛis |. However, as we say about the Milluk word / ʔælks / ‘afraid’ (where Mrs. Peterson’s version of the word is ʔælqs), Jacobs’ old-fashioned Americanist phonetic transcriptions of Milluk have only the symbol epsilon [ɛ] to represent the entire range of this Milluk phoneme. We distinguish the phonetic vowels [ æ ] and [ ɛ ], and also [ e ]. We favor the symbol [ æ ], called ‘ash’, to write the Milluk phoneme / æ /, as a phoneme, because [ æ ] is by far the most common pronunciation of this Milluk phoneme. For us, the phonemic representation of this word is / yæis /, which is the same as one of our Americanist phonetic transcriptions. The IPA of that is [ jæis ]. It happens that with this Milluk word, the range of pronunciations of the Milluk phoneme / æ / includes not only [ æ ] and [ɛ], which is what we hear in this interview segment, but also extends to the phonetic vowel [e]. In order to hear the word as [ yeis] we have to listen to Lolly’s interview segment “ Mouth 2”.